The Sheepwalk reopens as The Crown

The former Sheepwalk Pub on Leytonstone High Road is believed to be due to open this Friday as ‘The Crown’. Peeking through the windows it looks like it will have an atmosphere more like the Red Lion than the old Sheepwalk and will be offering food as well as drink.

A taste of Hungary comes to Leytonstone

Just up the road from The Crown is Leytonstone’s first Hungarian delicatessen, Magyarok Boltja. Üdvözöljük a Leytonstone-ban (that means welcome in case you’re not fluent in Hungarian)! They have a Facebook page (the pictures are in any language you want them to be, but the text is Hungarian). Hungary has always had a reputation in Eastern Europe for having the best food, Budapest was often described as the Paris of the East, so a Hungarian influence on the High Road could be a good thing.

Tuesday 20 November, 7pm

Leytonstone Festival AGM

The Leytonstone Festival Annual General Meeting will be at 7pm on Tuesday 20 November and all members are invited to attend to set the vision for the Leytonstone Festival 2013.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games were a huge success but many businesses have not yet seen the benefits and some have seen their sales dip.

I have therefore added a new Business page of useful links for Leytonstone businesses and people looking to become self-employed, such as PRIME. These are not just organisations in Leytonstone but borough and London wide as well as some key Government Departments. Contact me if you know any more.

Free listings

The page includes some links to directories where shops and other businesses can be listed for free.

Please share

Please share this information and if you’re in a local shop mention it to the shopkeeper — many local businesses do not appear to have websites or even Facebook and Google+ profiles.

On the day after the first 4G contract was announced and with mobile phones increasingly being used for accessing websites and shopping, businesses can’t rely anymore on customers just passing through and traditional advertising media.

A website like this one costs nothing for the software and there are no monthly hosting costs, just a few £s a year for the domain name (‘www’ address) — and time. There are other very low cost options too.

Facebook is free. Twitter is free. YouTube is free. Google+ is free and there are many other free Google services to help promote business. The more businesses that have websites and are using key social media, especially Google, the more Leytonstone and Leytonstone businesses will appear in search rankings — everyone benefits.

Opportunities and threats

When the Olympic Park reopens there will be huge opportunities for Leytonstone, but for businesses who are not online it will be a huge threat. Many people in Leytonstone now have access to some of the fastest broadband in the country.

Transition Leytonstone Community Garden Launch

Sunday 9th September 2-4 pm

Transition Leytonstone have been given permission by the London Borough of Waltham Forest to develop a piece of land in Leytonstone town centre into a community garden, and this Sunday will be the first meeting at the site. Everybody is welcome to go along and give ideas and offer help.

The London 2012 Changing Places Transform is also supporting the project.

Location: Between the footbridge and 113 Harold Road Leytonstone (follow Church Lane past the tube station and keep going past the car park and the children’s playground).

View the Paralympic Closing Fireworks from the top of St John’s Tower

Sunday 9 September, 10pm until 12.30am 10 September

St John’s Church, Church Lane, Leytonstone, E11

Sunday sees the Paralympic Closing ceremony and if you’re not one of the 80,000 lucky ticket holders to the Olympic Stadium, St John’s Church Tower offers a unique opportunity to watch the fireworks that will bring to a close this amazing summer of sport in the East End.

Book your tickets — places are limited so it’s essential you do book — for this event which includes live classical music in church first and FairTrade refreshments on the tower (good filter coffee and proper hot chocolate, and both chocolate chip and ginger biscuits). There’s also smartphone reception on the tower, and one guide can give a commentary on what is happening (or bring your own, only 3G — there is no free wifi). Binoculars are provided (or bring your own) and cameras are welcome. You need sensible shoes and clothes as the climb to the tower is quite narrow, but worth the effort for the stunning view at the top.

The event is a church fund raiser so the price is £50 per ticket (all included and all goes towards the remaining debt for the recent works on the tower).

Maps of the Olympic Park

Olympic Park on Google Maps (If you don’t know the area, beware, some people have tried to gain a marketing advantage by marking up the Olympic Stadium wrongly on Google Maps, the correct location is near to Stratford Station).

Get Ahead of the Games daily travel reminders

Download the Get Ahead of the Games calendar for daily travel reminders.

Other travel links

See the right hand column and the bottom of this page for other travel links and travel feeds from Transport for London and the Highways Agency.

Tickets

There are still some tickets available, but you have to order them online, you can’t just turn up at the park and buy them on the spot. Beware of people trying to resell tickets or selling tickets through unauthorised sources: you almost certainly won’t get in with a ticket you’ve bought through an unauthorised source and may be committing a criminal offence!

Leyton Food Stalls

Waltham Forest Council has created a special international food market on Marshall Road, near to Leyton tube station and the Olympic Park.

The market runs from 27 July to 9 September and is offering 30 hot and cold food hall stalls, run mainly by local restaurants and café owners. The market has been established in partnership with North London Business and Skateco UK.

The old Leyton Town Hall has also opened as a pop-up pub Leyton Technical , run by the Antic Group, which runs the Red Lion in Leytonstone and other pubs around London.

News

The sun came out hitting temperatures that felt like summer, not March, and there’s no better image of summer in Leytonstone than seeing people rowing on Hollow Pond.

‘Hollow Pond’ is also one of the most popular searches on this site, so for anyone thinking of taking out a boat, it’s good news that the boats are back every afternoon, though they do sometimes close in bad weather.

The good weather held, too, for the Queen’s visit to Walthamstow Town Hall yesterday, where she and the Duke of Edinburgh attended a lunch for community leaders and was entertained by bands and choirs from local school pupils. Students from Waltham Forest College helped with the preparation and serving of the lunch.

Are you organising a community event in Leytonstone for the Diamond Jubilee? You’re welcome to advertise it, or post photos after the event on this site. See the new Queen’s Jubilee page for more details.

This site is no longer being updated

November 2013:
This site is no longer being regularly updated as I have moved from Leytonstone. I hope you have enjoyed using this site. A lot of text and pictures will still be relevant for a long time to come but please check other information in case it is out of date.